1. Field
The disclosure relates generally to data processing systems and, in particular, to managing electronic communications. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method, apparatus, and computer program for performing actions to facilitate access to a resource pointed to by a reference in an electronic communication.
2. Description of the Related Art
Users communicate with each other through electronic communications. These communications may be postings over a social network, instant messages, email, and many other forms of electronic communication. These communications sometimes include references. A reference is a pointer to a resource. For example, a reference in an electronic communication may be a universal resource locator (URL). The reference may be a link to resources, such as another electronic communication, a document outside of the electronic communication, a document attached to the electronic communication, streaming media, and other types of data.
Users accessing electronic communications will often times wish to access a resource pointed to by a reference in the communication. However, a user who has access to the communication may not have access to the resource pointed to by the reference in the communication. For example, a user may receive an email with a reference for a document stored in a secure repository. In this example, the user may select the reference in the email and then subsequently receive an error message stating that the user does not have permission to access the reference.
Additionally, users of search engines oftentimes receive invalid search results, insufficient search results, or both receive invalid search results and insufficient search results. For example, a user may make a search request to a corporate search engine. In this example, the search engine may return a list of results, some of which the user does not have access to. Further in this example, the search engine may filter out some of the results of the search because the user does not have access.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method, apparatus, and computer program product that takes into account at least some of the issues discussed above.